Big-top Fringe

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This article was published 18/07/2011 (5282 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FULL SCREEN AHEAD: THE SKETCH SHOW SHOW

Gray Area of Comedy

Playhouse Studio (Venue 3), to Saturday

 

A FICKLE-FAITHED evangelical huckster, a smooth-talking but slightly unhinged marriage/camp counsellor and a “dudeless dude” who’s desperate for male companionship.

These are some of the late-night boob-tube boobs who snuck in after Winnipeg comedy writer and couch potato Tim Gray fell asleep in front of the TV and left the door to his consciousness ajar.

They’re brought to life, hilariously so at times, in a series of (mostly) cleverly written segments that twist and skew familiar commercial and infomercial stereotypes. A highlight is the sketch about an insurance salesman who uses a blanket as a prop for his “unexpected loss” pitch.

Gray’s sketch comedy troupe of himself, Fraz Wiest, Caitlin Curtis and Marc Evans shine in a variety of unique roles, especially Wiest as a voice-over announcer driven to the brink by a pizza commercial. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö1/2

— Carolin Vesely

 

 

 

NO TRAVELER: A COMEDY ABOUT SUICIDE

Pennypollak

Playhouse Studio (Venue 3), to Sunday

 

IN a wine- and pill-fuelled fit of anger and despair, a young woman decides to punish her neglectful father by turning a straight razor on herself.

She wakes up in a vomit-filled tin bucket. And in purgatory. Her only way out is to return to Earth and stop other self-destructive women from doing what she did.

This dark and slightly creepy solo version of It’s a Wonderful Life is inventive and brilliantly executed. New York’s Penny Pollak, with her intense eyes and wild mane, is a charismatic and very physical performer.

But a fractured script makes it hard to keep track of the so-called body count as Pollak, between monologues, handles both sides of the conversations between the “angel” from the bucket and the person she’s trying to convince that life is worth living.

And despite the title, there’s only a touch of gallows humour. Unless you’re into edgy theatre, the hour might feel like purgatory. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö1/2

— Carolin Vesely

 

 

 

DEATH FARMER

Yerstory

MTC Warehouse (Venue 6), to Sunday

 

THE title suggests an ’80s slasher movie, but the ill-named Death Farmer is a kitchen-sink drama by writer-director Eric Warwaruk examining the decline of the farm and the inexorable pull exerted on farmers’ kids towards urban life.

Sam (Quinn Greene) returns to his Manitoba family farm, but just in a lawyerly capacity, to get his mom to sign over the property to a buyer. He is haunted by the memories of his rancorous deceased dad (Frank Anthony) and is anxious about his failing relationship with a Wolseley earth mother (Aileen Audette).

The drama is conventional and exceeding earnest — two rare qualities in a fringe play — but it is performed with heart, with Anthony the standout as the short-fused father. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö

— Randall King

 

INTERRUPTIONS

Archetype Productions

Playhouse Studio (Venue 3), to Friday

 

RETIRED Calgary psychologist Wendy Froberg offers a multi-perspective look at the “silent loss” of a child before or at birth.

The playwright, who has been there herself, uses a handful of characters — including an obstetrician and a teenage boy — to give voice to the grief, shame, regret and sense of inadequacy that emerge during the mourning and healing process. It’s a hopeful piece that shows people can suffer a life-changing loss and emerge with more insight into themselves and their closest relationships.

But while Froberg handles the subject matter with warmth and sensitivity, she’s too safe with it. Her characters — there are too many of them — are too generic and superficial, and their experiences too predictable, for us to really feel their pain. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö

— Carolin Vesely

 

 

 

FRINGE FAMILY FUN SHOW

Comedy Illusions of Greg Wood

Argue Building Youth Centre (Calvary Temple) (Venue 23), to Friday

 

THE best kids’ shows have a little something for everyone, and the Fringe Family Fun Show fits that criteria with enough magic and humour to keep kids and their parents entertained for an hour.

Winnipegger Greg Wood’s fourth fringe appearance uses a circus theme — just like this year’s festival — to present his mixture of illusions, sleight of hand and comedy. The likable performer definitely loves to clown around and admits some of his jokes are as old as his 2,000-year-old Chinese-linking-rings trick, but they keep the show moving and add to its enjoyment. His bag of tricks includes a magic rope, a never-ending jug of water, coins pulled out of thin air, plenty of colourful scarves and a mid-show sing-along.

There is plenty of audience participation and the families and day-care groups in the crowd seemed to have fun, just as the title promised. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö

— Rob Williams

ALPHONSE

Theaturtle

Gas Station Theatre (Venue 18), to Sunday

 

WHEN a child disappears, a policeman follows the trail into a fantasy world inhabited by brawling sailors, giant vacuum cleaners and acres of popcorn in this winsome comedy performed by Toronto’s Alon Nashman (2007’s Kafka and Son).

A tribute to childhood by Quebec-based playwright Wajdi Mouawad — whose drama Scorched was adapted as 2011 Oscar-nominated film Incendies — this story takes a meandering route. As Alphonse walks along a country road, chasing an imaginary hero on a mission to retrieve the world’s cake recipes from a mysterious nemesis, the boy’s friends recount some of his frequent flights of fancy.

Nashman is a chameleon, playing dozens of characters along with a gentle narrator who steers the audience to a poignant conclusion. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö’Ö 1/2

 

— Pat St. Germain

 

MR. CRUMPLE’S PUPPET PAD

Wishweweres

MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2) to Sunday

 

CHILDREN’S television show hosts Mr. Crumple and Mr. Rogers would have a lot in common, if Mr. Rogers were a drunk who swore at kids and told knock-knock jokes for change at bus stops. Things went bad for Mr. Crumple in 1996, but today the entertainer is sober and on the comeback trail, joined by his trusty puppet sidekicks Groggle, Gordito and Grizz.

Real-life television and film star Stephen McIntyre returns to his fringe roots and brings a sense of believability to the character: an agitated, on-the-edge, quick-tempered man dressed in an argyle sweater vest. His human co-stars Dan Walechuk and David Zellis handle all the puppet duties, standing beside McIntyre with their arms through the (well-made) homemade creations. The 45-minute show starts as a comedy, but a surprise from Mr. Crumple’s past marks a shift in tone and soon his pad becomes a bit of a downer.

Today’s lesson, kids: don’t have sex with puppets. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö

— Rob Williams

 

 

 

 

THE HYSTERIC

Found in New York Productions

MTC Mainstage (Venue 1), to Saturday

 

THEY say marriage can drive you insane, but this is ridiculous.

New Yorkers Jonathan Kaplan and Carol Lee Sirugo play unnamed newlyweds — along with numerous other characters — in this two-person comedy thriller Edgar Allan Poe might have written if he were schooled in the humour of Monty Python.

Sirugo plays the young bride of Kaplan, a shady sort who hypnotizes and drugs his wife to get her into bed, but he doesn’t want to sleep with her. Throughout the night the woman hears horrific screaming and moaning, and in the morning things in the house are missing. Is she going mad?

The show included sharp dialogue, well-timed atmospheric sound effects and a clever use of props. Kaplan and Sirugo have a great chemistry together and the different characters are easily identifiable, but some asides to the audience could be spoken more loudly for people in the back.

The Hysteric is a crazy good hour of your time. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö’Ö

— Rob Williams

 

MONKEY PUPPET

Monkey Centurion Productions

Alloway Hall (Venue 4), to Saturday

 

THE program promises 75 minutes, but the actual show comes in at more like 45, which is precisely right for a comedy about a “douche” ad man named Henry (Mackenzie Murdock), who hears voices emanating from a monkey puppet.

Henry sees a therapist about the monkey and reveals his issues with a quasi-girlfriend Sheila (both therapist and Sheila played by Rosalie Berger) but is less forthcoming about his estranged brother (Jeremiah MacKenzie-Wilner, doubling as sardonic narrator). It promises to resolve in one of those heavy-revelatory endings, but presumably writer-director Gio Navarro jettisoned all that along with 30 minutes of narrative fat, making for a light, eccentric diversion at the fringe. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö

— Randall King

 

RAMBO: THE MISSING YEARS

Howard Petrick Presents

Planetarium Auditorium (Venue 10), to Sunday

 

DESPITE a facility for voicing some 14 characters with varied regional accents, San Francisco’s Howard Petrick looks a little too uncomfortable on stage to register as an actor. Fortunately, the potency of Rambo: The Missing Years springs from Petrick’s first-hand account of his anti-Vietnam activism from within the army in the mid-1960s.

The freshly drafted Petrick first attempts to confound his Minneapolis induction centre by refusing to fill out the necessary forms. “The war can’t be going so badly they need me,” he says. But once he is in their hands, his rebellious activities, including passing antiwar literature to his fellow GIs, raises the army’s ire and soon he is being threatened with a court martial for treason.

The fringe presents lots of historic plays, but this comes with an intriguing authenticity. Also, one of his many voices is a dead ringer for R. Lee Ermey’s drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket, which only helps. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö1/2

— Randall King